The present invention relates to racks for storing goods of considerable length, such as battens, bars, tubing, sections, rolled carpets, rollers and the like.
Normally, goods of this kind are stored in racking consisting of compartments arranged in a framework rack, each compartment having specific height, length and width dimensions. The goods are placed directly on the bottom of the compartment. The compartments are elongated and open onto a central passage. Standing in the passage, a person can select and withdraw a specific dimension from a compartment.
When a bar is to be withdrawn from the rack, it is pulled along the bottom of the compartment while overcoming the frictional forces at the bottom. Very often the goods are assembled into bundles. In that case, the whole bundle must be taken out from the compartment, whereupon the desired number of bars or the like may be picked out and the bundle restored to the compartment. However, such a bundle will very often be heavy and unwieldy.
To facilitate the handling of such goods, the central passage is provided with a lifting device, such as a travelling crane and/or a movable support which can be raised and lowered. Generally, the goods must be manually pulled out laterally from their compartments because the operation is difficult to perform mechanically. A travelling crane or the like can only lift the outer end of the goods because it is not possible to reach the inner end of the goods. Consequently, the inner end of the goods drag along the bottom of the compartment while being pulled out. Since the bundles may be heavy, the frictional force to be overcome may be quite large. Obviously, this manual handling of heavy materials is hazardous and laborious work.
If the compartment in the frame work racking only has transverse beams without a complete floor, the insertion of the goods is also difficult. Thus, it is necessary to take care that the goods will remain in the correct compartment and will not enter the adjacent compartment.
It is known to use carriages in racking for moving goods stored in the rack. In such a previously known design, the goods are stored on loading pallets which are placed on a wheeled carriage. The carriage together with the loading pallet and the goods loaded thereon are inserted into an insertion station at one end of the rack and is taken out after storage at a taking-out station at the other end of the rack. The carriage with the loading pallet is moved successively between the insertion and the taking-out stations in rails provided in the bottom of the compartment. A carriage of this kind is horizontal and adapted to carry the entire goods. However, until now, carriages for storing goods of considerable length have not been used.